Mumbai: From former cabinet minister and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray to city Congress president and Mumbai North Central MP Varsha Gaikwad, and recent entrant to BJP Ravi Raja—formerly the opposition leader in the BMC—politicians on Saturday opposed the civic body’s plans for levying a user fee for solid waste collection.
The move, as reported by TOI on Dec 14, is in line with the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2016, officials told the newspaper. The SWM Rules describe a user fee as “a fee imposed by the local body on the waste generator to cover full or part of the cost of providing solid waste collection, transportation, processing, and disposal services.”
Thackeray, on Saturday at a press conference, criticised the proposal, stating, “The BMC now plans to impose a ‘user fee’ on Mumbaikars for collecting daily waste. Never has this happened before. Why should Mumbaikars pay for the obligatory duty of the BMC? We’ve served Mumbai multiple times through the BMC, and never did we indulge in burdening Mumbaikars like this BJP govt that plans this user fee. Will the BMC pay us every time we spot garbage dumps on the road? It has done a shoddy job of waste collection for the past two years.”
Congress Mumbai Regional Committee president Gaikwad accused the BMC of catering to contractor-friendly interests, saying, “When collection and disposal of waste is an obligatory duty of the BMC under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, why impose this burden on citizens? Aren’t Mumbaikars reeling enough under Modi-made inflation and price rise? The Congress will strongly oppose the imposition of any user fee for garbage collection. The @mybmc and this contractor-friendly regime should instead focus on timely and efficient collection of solid waste.”
Others like Ravi Raja, who recently joined the BJP prior to the assembly elections, questioned why such an important decision is taken when there are no elected representatives in the corporation. “And what is the guarantee that this will be judicially used for the cause and BMC will sincerely find the solution to this problem? For years we all have seen how garbage collection and its disposal is ill-managed at dumping grounds. So first BMC should give justification on how money will be used,” said Raja.
Many cities across India, like Pune and Bengaluru, currently have a user fee imposed by the local corporation.
